Goodbye
he said to the flower.
But she made no answer.

Goodbye
he said again.

The flower coughed. But it was not because she had a cold.

I have been silly
she said to him
at last. "I ask your forgiveness. Try to be happy..."




she showed her four thorns. Then she added:
Don't linger like this. You have decided to go away. Now go!
For she did not want him to see her crying. She was such a proud flower...




he confided to me one day. "One never ought to listen to the flowers. One should simply look at them and breathe their fragrance. Mine perfumed all my planet. But I did not know how to take pleasure in all her grace. This tale of claws
which disturbed me so much
should only have filled my heart with tenderness and pity."

And he continued his confidences:
The fact is that I did not know how to understand anything! I ought to have judged by deeds and not by words. She cast her fragrance and her radiance over me. I ought never to have run away from her... I ought to have guessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little strategems. Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her...